From the Captains Log

"Well here it is Thursday night, all I can say is the sea was angry today!  The maiden voyage got off a little slow as many last minute things still needed to be done. The weather looked poor so the delay wasn't bad. The launch took extra time to set up halyards and sheets which had been removed previously. All went well, the wind had changed to South west by the time we were out of the channel. We got to see The Pines before proceeding to Sailors Haven who's heading we could not make with the wind from the SW. The trip took a little longer than planned due to the extra sailing. Ah the landing went good, we were in paradise! We were surprised at how few boats were docked there. We proceeded to the ocean.
Who were all these people on our beach? Why were they so small? We soon discovered we had arrived on camp day for little kids! 300 hundred of the little ones. We must have counted six whole councilors. Hey we could live with this, they were all grouped at their end of the beach we went to the other end. The ocean was cold and the sun was hot. In a short time I was burned to a crisp. We proceeded back for some lunch to the small concession stand. The 300 kids were on line there! A half hour later on line we placed our order and in another half hour we had our food. We headed off to the boat for the trip home. What luck, the wind was going in our direction, it would be a quick trip home. The wind was stiff and we were flying. What a nice way to end the day a record time trip home. I was worried it was later than my normal return time. I knew the seas would be rough at this time of day and they looked worse than usual. Have you seen the "Perfect Storm"? The wind was blowing so strong that it was howling as it blew by us, LOUD! The waves had built and we were surfing up and down them. It was soon apparent we were going to have to loose some sail, the boat was getting out of control. The main sail was going to have to come down. Not a small task in the middle of this wind storm. The motor was started and the boat was headed into the wind, this would take the pressure off the sails and allow them to be lowered but with tremendous flapping of the sails. Well after getting there, facing the wind and the main sail coming down the motor quit. The boat turned with the next wave and the wind caught the main sail now down about a third way. It was stuck there, it wouldn't go up or down. Now the wind really caught it. The jib which had been let loose to let us face the wind decided to run itself too. The clip used to connect the control ropes to it, grabbed the front stay and we were under way with no control. I wondered if I had jinxed things by saying I had never capsized the boat, in a recent letter. Twice I was almost thrown from the boat when it nearly went over. Thanks to my crew member, who had never sailed before, the two of us working together were able to get the sail down and continue home using just the jib. We still got home in a hurry, Sea Rescue was having a lot of  calls and kept passing us, we waved, we had it under control. There was talk of kissing the land when we hit dock but we just proceeded to do our stuff and trailered the boat back home.
Looking back on the day I would have done a few things different. My record is still good but this will be the last I mention it, that's for sure!
Yikes am I red, well off to bed here."

Capt. Rich